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Lunch on the Roof (funny, I don't remember those big mountains in the background last time).

Me, Ulrich Sauter, Larry Fine, Kathy Harl

Kirk Burgett (owner M&H), Jamie (plant manager), and the new B

Rick Clark, Cecil (national sales manager M&H), and me [in front of the B again])Rick and his partner Joy are old friends of Piano World and the forums. In fact, Joy has the distinction of being the very first forums member I ever met in person (when I was on business in Carlsbad, CA ... one of my favorite spots in the country). Unfortunately Joy was taking the picture so she's not in it, but she is in pictures from forums parties in CA . BTW, I played the B, I can tell you it doesn't sound like a small piano :-)

Frank "The Piano World Guy" Baxter, and Scott "The Piano Guy" Houston

Incidentally, of all the people who promised to buy me a drink, take me to lunch/dinner, etc.Scott was the only one who came through.Thanks Scott :-)

I really was going to buy the next round, too bad you had to go to a meeting.

Originally posted by USAPianoTrucker: Interesting to see that tired banner that says "not open to the public." We'll see what Sunday brings. If it's anything like last year, the NAMM members will be at the airports or playing golf.

I was talking to one dealer, (I believe it was Greg Durthaler from Piano Solutions in IN), and he said...

Ok, if they don't want to let the public in, how about at least organizing some tour groups from the colleges/music schools.

His thought was to attract new people to the business, and drum up a little excitement. I agree, and it probably would result in some good PR as well.

And thanks for the (brief) review of the M&H B. Did they have an A nearby? Could you compare the two?

More pictures and stories coming after a short break. Translation, I'm having some dinner, some wine, and then going outside to smoke my pipe.

Now that you mention it Monica, inside the M&H room there was a B, next to a CC :-) Not exactly a fair comparison there now is it.

The B out in the hall (the one in the picture) has a PianoDisc installation with the videos playing. It kept attracting crowds, in part because it sounded good, and in part because the videos included cartoon characters playing (as the PianoDisc recreated it on the piano), lots of fun.

Thanks for the great pics... Always wondered what it looked like. How fun seeing and trying the latest of what manufacturers have to offer. I'm jealous! Are most all piano manufacturers there? Just how big is it?

Originally posted by pianobuff: Thanks for the great pics... Always wondered what it looked like. How fun seeing and trying the latest of what manufacturers have to offer. I'm jealous! Are most all piano manufacturers there? Just how big is it?

As Briguy65 said, the Anaheim Convention center is huge. NAMM takes over all 4 floors, with displays of every imaginiable musical instrument and music related products.

This is the 12' Rubenstein.Del (Fandrich) tells me the man who built it did it because he always wanted to build a 12' piano.

Some more piano booths...

The man on the right walking by the Brodmann booth has the look we all start to get by the 3rd day.

Our friends at the PTG...

The Geneva International Booth.They had a huge display as usual, but they were in the same area with the band and string instrument displays. I'm not sure why they set up here every year, you can barely here yourself talk.

Another Shot of Geneva.I was going to see if I could chat with some of their folks (3 or 4 of them weren't busy when I came by). They seemed to have no interest in coming over to me.

Bluthner was right across from Geneva, in the same noisey neighborhood.

Yes, that's Larry Fine and Dino standing off to the right side of the picture.

I ran into Steve Cohen in the SMC booth, had some interesting conversations. Steve, thanks for introducing me to the president of Samick, and to Jay Cross, Norbert and Rick Jones.

Piano Peddler it was good to meet you in person.Speaking of the Piano Travelers Association (Piano Peddler convinced me to join a couple years ago), I ran into Wilton by the Hilton (no, this isn't leading to a joke).Wilton is like the grand old master of the Piano Travelers. He told me this was his 57th NAMM show!

Those of you groaning and rolling your eyes, feel free to send me large checks or bags of cash so I won't have to solicit advertisers.

If/when they do come on board, I will try to keep it to a minimum and unabtrusive.

About the show:Overall I got the impression it wasn't doing as well as it did 2 years ago (the last time I attended). There just didn't seem to be the same amount of excitement and energy in the air.

Of course, that's just from my limited perspective, and feedback from a couple dealers and exhibitors.

I'm sure we'll get a better picture of it when the trade magazines report back (I'll let you know what they say).

Speaking of exhibitors, BossieEric - I tried 4 or 5 times to catch up with you but you were always busy. Luckily the attractive/pleasant young lady at the front counter also had a sense of humor.

A few of the people I spoke with indicated they didn't feel NAMM was doing enough at the grass-roots level to inspire new musicians.

I know NAMM has the new "Wanna Play?" program running now, don't know how successful it is.

There is so much competition for people's attention these days, it's more difficult to convince them of the pleasure and satisfaction you get from making your own music.

I did get comments from a number of people about how much they liked the Forums Parties idea.As they said, it's wonderful to see people getting together to share their love of music.

For those of you who asked me about the new Mason & Hamlin B, I only played it for 2 minutes, in a crowded room. M&H promised to have one available for our tour group in May, so we should be able to get about 40 people's opinions after that :-)

It was fun to revisit old friends, and meet some new ones. The show is always interesting and I never get tired of seeing all those beautiful instruments.

I'm hoping some of our other members will post their thoughts and pictures.I've got to go get ready for the long trek back east now, hate to leave the warm sunny climate here but it's time to head home.

Interesting about Mr. Baxter getting snubbed by Geneva. I seem to recall a very similar comment from a previous show made by a self-interested anti-Petrof relentlessly propagandizing retailer-Piano World poster called Norbert. Yet so many others have mentioned receiving a warm welcome at Geneva. Coincidence?

Originally posted by Brick: Interesting about Mr. Baxter getting snubbed by Geneva. I seem to recall a very similar comment from a previous show made by a self-interested anti-Petrof relentlessly propagandizing retailer-Piano World poster called Norbert. Yet so many others have mentioned receiving a warm welcome at Geneva. Coincidence?

I think they are confusing posts/poster's with Piano World.No company is immune from criticism (including PW), it just happens to be faster and more public on the Internet. Smart companies figure out how to leverage the Internet, including how to utilize sites like ours.

I've received direct emails from Geneva Intl. before, they were always polite and cordial, even if they were expressing displeasure about a post.

I think eventually manufacturers and reps will figure out Piano World is not out to get them, and that it can actually be a benefit to them (branding, advertising, communications, maybe even voluntary surveys or interactivity).

As I said earlier, some of them already get it.

Marketing on the Internet is not like any other media. The traditional channels do not usually provide for instant feedback/reaction and/or interactivitiy. Anyway, I'm starting to get off topic here. Back to the NAMM thread :-)

All of those beautiful pianos!!! Now where do they go? How does it work? Are the pianos auctioned or sold to dealers who label them as NAMM pianos thus advertising a discount to the public?Who gets to go to the convention? Only dealers?Thank again for your replies Frank and all the pictures. It is nice to put a face to a name.